The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically affixing a tape of composite material on the surface of an adhesion form having various contours to make a lamination of the tape.
In recent years, lightweight plate materials have been produced from a tape of composite material, i.e. a tape prepared by impregnating carbon fiber, aramid fiber or like reinforcing fiber with a thermosetting resin, by affixing the tape on the surface of an adhesion form (body) having specified contours to make a lamination, and thereafter subjecting the lamination to a curing treatment with application of heat and pressure. Unexamined Japanese patent application No. SHO 58-45057, for example, discloses a known method of automatically affixing such a tape of composite material. With this method, the tape is continuously paid off from a reel and pressed against the surface (curved surface) of the adhesion form with a press roller, the press roller is moved along a predetermined path to successively affix tape portions without leaving a clearance therebetween, and the tape affixing direction is changed from layer to layer, whereby a lamination is obtained. When the presser roller comes near a border of an adhesion region, the tape is cut with a cutter disposed between the reel and the presser roller and the cut edge is positioned at the border of the adhesion region.
In the above apparatus, however, the cut edges are not uniformly positioned at the border of the adhesion region due to the fact that the tape is cut without taking into consideration differences between actual paths of the presser roller and programmed paths. As shown in FIG. 1, a tape is cut when a presser roller 20 reaches a predetermined position P before a border of an adhesion region. The presser roller 20 is stopped at the position P and the tape is cut with a cutter 41 (only an adhesion layer of the twolayer tape is cut). However, the contour of a surface 300 of an actual adhesion form is different from the contour of a surface 400 of a programmed adhesion form due to errors on manufacture. A tape affixing head 1 carrying the presser roller 20 is moved in accordance with a programmed path. The presser roller 20 which is moved with coming in contact with the actual surface 300 moves up and down relative to the tape affixing head 1. Consequently, when the tape affixing head 1 is positioned at a solid line and the presser roller 20 moves up to a position illustrated by a solid line, a distance from the lowermost end of the presser roller 20 at the position P to a cutter 41 is different from the programmed one. The difference between the actual distance and programmed distance result in the irregularity of cut edges on the border of the adhesion region. In other words, as shown in FIG. 10, the length of a cut tape 10 is insufficiently long or short to a predetermined border 10a.